502 
cannot but think that, for the feelings of the old 
servant who exhibits the spots, it would be the 
“ unkindest cut of all” to refuse credence to the 
story. Indeed, a hint at paint offends him as 
much as it might have offended a belle pussée of the 
last century. T. H. P. 
Mignonette the Badge of the Counts of Saxony 
(2° S. i. p. 454.) —In reply to D. L. I send you 
the legend from Mrs. Loudon'’s Ladies’ Flower 
Garden of Ornamental Annuals, which she took 
from a little work called Le Langage des Fleurs. 
The Count Walsthein was paying his addresses to 
a beautiful heiress, who trifled with his affections, 
and who had a dependent cousin secretly in love 
with the count. One evening, while walking in 
the garden, the ladies each chose a flower, and the 
heiress gaily challenged the count to write the 
description of each in one line. She had chosen a 
wild rose, and the count, who had been piqued by 
her numerous flirtations, wrote, — 
“Charming, but evanescent.” 
The cousin had chosen mignonette, and the count’s 
motto for this flower was, — 
“ Your qualities surpass your charms.” 
The legend adds, that the count married the cousin, 
and in compliment to her inserted the mignonette 
in his coat of arms. GastRos. 
The Reader's Maxim (2 §. i. 19. 375.) — If 
J. K. will constilt Byrom’s poems, he will find the 
passage he requires. The advice which Byrom 
gives is most valuable ; and public speakers would 
do well to read and study with attention the 
directions which the poet gives. Cxericus (D.) 
Matthew Buchinger (2°48. i. 429.) — It is sur- 
prising what things are brought to light by “ N. 
& Q.” I havea good specimen of the writing and 
drawing of the above remarkable character of the 
date 1717, and it quite bears out G. N.’s descrip- 
tion of it, to whom I should be happy to show it 
(should he wish it), and have left a note for him 
at the publishers. J. W. 
“A sunbeam passes through pollution unpolluted ” 
(27S. i. 114. 304. 442.) —S. Augustine, I be- 
lieve, is the originator of this idea. It occurs in 
his Works (in Joan. tr. 4.), where he says: 
“ Lus, etsi per immunda transeat, non inquinatur.” 
ALFRED T. Lzz. 
Tetbury, Gloucestershire. 
“ Holly, the only indigenous Evergreen” (2° §. 
1. 443.) —I should perhaps have said that the 
holly was the only indigenous evergreen tree, for 
of such small plants as spurge laurel, butchers’ 
broom, gorse, and ivy, I did not intend to speak. 
The yew and box have, I believe, been proved to 
be imported trees. It is true, on congenial soils 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[204 S. No 25., June 21. °56, 
they grow freely from the seed; but of the yew the 
first specimens, probably, yet remain planted singly 
in churchyards, and the box, with only one or two 
exceptions, remains to this day the inhabitant of 
the garden only. I maintain, therefore, I was 
right in calling the holly our only indigenous ever- 
green, to the exclusion especially of the yew and 
box. 
For further information on this subject I beg 
to refer Mr. Frere to some papers in the Gent. 
Mag., written by my grandfather under the sig- 
nature T. H. W., in the years 1784, pp. 21. and 
970.; 1786, p. 940.; 1787, p. 666. 
A. Horr Wuire. 
Popular Names for Live Stock (2° S. i. 416.) — 
Is Mr. Stersens sure that a three times shorn 
ewe is a twinter? In the North of England we 
apply the term to ¢wo year old cattle, and it is 
supposed to be a contraction of two winter. We 
don’t say a quey, but a why or wye calf, and a 
dry cow isadrape. In Craven they call a colt a 
stagg, and a pony a highty. ade 
oD) 
Ancient Origin of Phrases now in Common Use 
(2"' §, i. 283.) — With the expression “ If the sky 
were to fall we should catch larks,” cf. Ter. Heaut. 
iv. 3.41.: Quid si? Redeo ad illos qui aiunt: Quid 
si celum ruat 2 P. J. F. Ganrriion. 
Chalices (2"4 S. i. 211.) — Some ten years since 
there was a Mr. Edward Edwards, in Shrews- 
bury, who had the glass “cup” which was for- 
merly in use in Battlefield Church. How it came 
into his possession I do not know. My impres- 
sion, however, is, that he obtained it for a mere 
nothing. 
Perhaps some of your numerous subscribers and 
readers are acquainted with this gentleman ; if so, 
would they use their influence to induce him to 
present it to the authorities of Lichfield Cathe- 
dral for safe and proper keeping ? 
H. Ap Apam. 
Urceola elastica, &c. (2° S. i. 454.) — Mr. 
Hancocx will find a figure of Urceola elastica of 
Roxburgh, in that author’s Asiatic Researches, 
and another in Wight’s Icones, t. 473. 
Siphonia Cahuchu, Richard, which is the Jatro- 
pha elastica of Linneus and the Hevea gwjanensis 
of Aublet is figured in Aublet’s Guyana, t. cs aa 
Kensington. 
Hangman Stones (24 §, i. 282. 402. 435.) —At 
a picturesque angle in the road betwixt Sheffield 
and Barnsley, and about three miles south of the 
latter place, there is a toll-bar called “* Hangman- 
Stone Bar.” Attached to this title is the usual 
legend of a sheep-stealer being strangled by the 
kicking animal, which he had slung across his 
shoulders, and which pulled him backwards as he 
